- Start Geometry Expressions, if you haven’t already.
- File > New
A new blank page opens, occupying the left and center of the window.
Below, from top down, are the palettes that define the process of working geometry problems:
- tools to create geometry objects,
- constrain inputs,
- create constructions, and
- calculate output.
And below are palettes providing ways to:
- insert symbols, and
- control variable values.
Enlarge your display size if some of the palettes are obscured.
- You can hide a palette individually by clicking the X at the upper right corner of the palette box. In this way, you can close palettes that you won’t be using. These tutorials won’t be using the Symbols palette, so you may close it now, if you wish. To display a hidden toolbox, select View / Tool Panels. The submenu lists the toolboxes and the Main Toolbar (the icon strip at the top of the window). Boxes shown are preceded by a check; those without a check are hidden.
You can customize the user interface in various ways. The options available in the View menu control zooming, scaling, axes etc. and the items in Edit > Preferences, address other visual, text and mathematical properties.
Under the Math tab, for example, you can set the threshold for Intermediate Variable Complexity, which under some circumstances can significantly affect the actual expression that’s calculated. A low threshold tells the application to substitute only simple intermediate variables, so you'll see more of them. A progressively higher threshold results in the substitution of progressively larger and more complex intermediate variables, so you'll see fewer but more complex ones.
- In the Draw palette, choose the line segment tool.
- Starting near the bottom left of the drawing, click and hold the mouse button down as you draw a line segment going upward and to the right. Geometry Expressions places the first point where the cursor is when you first press the mouse button, and the second point where you release it. It then labels the first point A and the second point B.
- With the line segment tool still selected, move the mouse around the drawing area, passing over one or both of these points. Geometry Expressions tracks the location of the drawing cursor, snapping it to an existing geometry object when the cursor gets close enough.
- Try creating other kinds of geometry objects with some of the other drawing tools. When you’re ready to go on, undo them all except the line AB.
- The Output section in Display Properties dialog box is where you see
a variety of options for controlling the output answers to your geometrical questions. An output expression will have to be highlighted; otherwise, the Properties… option (under Edit menu) will be grayed out.
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